Cardiff Northern went down in a close game on the first game of the season.
Cardiff Northern started the first game of the season with a good but not full strength side out against League newcomers Cardiff Tigers. Due to a last minute drop out of Ben Horlock injured wicket keeper David Manley had to come back in.
Wannabe superstar batsman Barrie Willacott was given a chance to open and although he and newcomer Steve Norman started well enough Baz was run out for 3 care of a shocking call from his partner.
Norman and Palmer were both bowled for 3 and 4 and while Gareth Jones looked in good nick he soon followed playing on for 4. Ashish Chatap was attacking the bowling and scoring some good runs and the extras count was climbing. Captain Ashley Chedzoy in his first match as club captain started well as he and Ashish kept the rotating the strike and when Ashley fell for 8 they were all singles. Dan Jones continued with the single scoring but when Ashish fell for 30 the lower order didn’t prosper. The opening bowlers were back on and later comer Jimmy Vaile in at 8 picked up a duck as did Martin Britton with Neil Thomas picking up just a single in between.
David Manley came in at 11 and while unable to run freely managed to play a nice late cut for four before Dan Jones was bowled off the first ball of the last over with the score on 92.
Northern opened with Gareth Jones who took a wicket in the first over and Northern began to build some pressure. The was an element of rustiness to the bowling meaning there were more poor balls than normal but it was only after Gareth and Russell had picked up further wickets that Ainto did the damage with a few high scoring overs off Chedzoy, Chatap and Thomas. The key moment was Thomas putting down a skied shot from Ainto and by the time Ashley finally broke the partnership, as Dave picked up a regulation nick, it was too late. The middle order fell cheaply to Chedzoy (Caught Vaile) and Palmer (Bowled) but Ainto hit the winning runs in the 16th over to finish unbeaten on 38.
Overall a game than Northern will look back on and think that perhaps they should have done more. 15-20 more runs on the board and holding that key catch would probably have been all they needed to win.
S Norman Bowled Kaiyum 3
B Willacott Run Out Vibe 2
R Palmer Bowled Hamza 4
A Chatap Bowled Iqbal 30
G Jones Bowled Hamza 4
A Chedzoy Bowled Iqbal 8
D Jones Bowled Ainto 4
J Vaile Caught Vibe 0
N Thomas Bowled Ainto 1
M Britton Bowled Ainto 0
D Manley Not Out 4
Extras 29
Total 92 All Out
O M R W
Vibe 4 0 14 1
Ainto 3.1 1 5 3
Iqbal 2 0 9 2
Hamza 3 0 19 1
Kaiyum 4 0 26 1
Vipul 1 0 8 0
Babbler Bowled Jones 1
Saajan Bowled Jones 11
Abdul Ct (Manley) Chedzoy 19
Tamil LBW Palmer 5
Ainto Not Out 38
Taj Ct (Vaile) Chedzoy 2
Vibe Not Out 2
Hamza
Iqbal Bowled Palmer 3
Ripon
Kaijum
Extras 14
Total 93-6
O M R W
G Jones 4 0 15 2
R Palmer 4 0 22 2
A Chedzoy 4 0 25 2
A Chatap 3.2 0 22 0
N Thomas 1 0 8 0
bat bowl catch runout stumping play TOTAL
A Chatap 45 -5 10 50
G Jones 4 32 10 46
R Palmer 4 20 10 34
A Chedzoy 8 15 10 33
D Manley 4 5 10 19
D Jones 4 10 14
S Norman 3 10 13
B Willacott 2 10 12
J Vaile -5 5 10 10
N Thomas 1 0 10 11
M Britton -5 10 5
Man of Match - A Chatap
